How to deal with the client's "good idea fairy"

Some clients regularly get visits from the "good idea fairy."

They come up with some idea that they think would be cool, fun, or exciting and want you to make it happen.

Because they don't know what would be involved to execute on the idea, they assume it's possible. It's even worse when you've shown you can get results. Their expectations get even more unrealistic sometimes!

Good idea fairies can cause a lot of unnecessary stress so you need to implement some consultant strategies.

Here's what I do in these situations:

• Get context
  • Figure out where they came up with this idea. Was it their boss? Something they read? An actual fairy visited them?
• Get agreement on the desired business outcome
  • Sometimes clients describe their needs in terms of features (e.g. I want the website to look like Apple's website). But you need to go deeper. Ask them what they think would be better if their organization's website looked like Apple's website.
  • Get them to agree so you're on the same page. This way you're not saying no, but you have shifted the conversation away from a website to a result that you can achieve in different ways.
• Give them options to achieve the outcome to varying degrees
  • Come up with 2-3 options to help them achieve the agreed upon business outcome
  • Make sure to include how long it would take to deliver each option, what other projects will be impacted for each option, and the amount of resources it will take (just you, you + 3 members of the team, new software, etc.)

If you've followed the steps above the client will either choose to abandon the idea or choose one of your options, which are more realistic.

You will also have endeared yourself to the client because you took their idea seriously and let them feel in charge.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.